Fleeing driver forced to end chase at Stamford police headquarters

Updated 4:18 pm, Thursday, April 6, 2017

STAMFORD — A city man out on bail for a prior drug arrest led cops on a chase through Wednesday afternoon, where at least three pedestrians jumped out of the way of his speeding car that reached up to 60 mph on busy downtown streets, police said.

The Audi A4, being driven by Tyrone Dotson, 26, of Stillwater Avenue, was forced to stop next to police headquarters on Hoyt Street at 4:29 p.m. after running into a rush-hour traffic jam, according to a police report.

The chase began when officers in the Narcotics and Organized Crime squad went to Dotson’s home to serve him an arrest warrant on two counts of narcotics sales, the report said.

Dotson was seen pulling out of the driveway and one of the teams assigned to apprehend him pulled up and got out of their car, police said.

Dotson saw the officers and sped away, while two backup teams chased him northbound on Stillwater, east on Bridge Street and down several other streets before apprehending Dotson about six minutes later at the jammed intersection of Hoyt and Morgan streets, the police report said.

Armed with the warrant, police searched Dotson’s car, finding an orange container containing about a gram and one-half of marijuana, the report said.

A search of the chase route did not yield any discards, either.

Officers at Dotson’s home found three bullets, which he was prohibited from owning because of a protective order stemming from a prior domestic violence arrest, police said.

They also found $1,330 in cash, a marijuana grinder and a digital scale, the report said.

Dotson was charged with engaging police in pursuit, possession of marijuana, hindering prosecution, possession of drug paraphernalia, reckless endangerment, violation of a protective order, plus the two counts of narcotics sales from his arrest warrant.

At his arraignment on Thursday, Dotson pleaded not guilty to the charges but was ordered by Judge Auden Grogins to be held in lieu of a $150,000 court appearance bond.